Option 3. No chance for either for multiple reasons.

Reason 1. Both players are developing very well and would be considered untouchable.

Reason 2. Detroit can't afford Werenki's cap hit next season.

Reason 3. Werenski have has a full season logged in quite a few years now. If we are going to pay that hefty price, payment and real dollars, we are going to need a guy that can put together at least a few full pulls out close to.

Werenski is the best player on the jackets when healthy and it’s not really close. Neither of those guys have the ceiling to be what werenski is. He’s still young enough that he will still be good when the jackets are ready to compete so there’s no need to trade him.

Z is not going anywhere.

That's a spicy take. I don't know how trading the guy who's probably next in line to be captain, fits the timeline, is clearly the best defenseman on the roster (and likely franchise history), and on many nights is the team's best player, does you any good. That's a player you change the team play style for, not one you ship out because he doesn't fit the team's style.

Honestly, it makes about as much sense as...Detroit moving Larkin to Columbus.

I think neither team does this

Ehh Edvinsson absolutely has the ceiling to be as good as Werenski is. And as noted, Werenski has missed like 150 games over the last five seasons. "When healthy" is a rather sizable condition.

I think you are underrating werenski. His even strength point production is behind Hughes, Hedman, and Makar. If the jackets didn’t have the worst PP in the league he’d be getting Norris votes this year even with missing some games. His defensive analytics are great as well. He’s a legit 1D. He’s a +4 playing top minutes on one of the worst teams in the league with some of the hardest deployment out of any defenseman in the entire league.

Even if he has the ceiling, teams don't trade an established star that fits their timeline one-for-one for a similar player with an equal ceiling. The mystery box could be anything, even a boat!

It only makes sense if Werenski was on a deal expiring soon and didn't want to re-sign (which the opposite is true) or if Columbus decided to start another full rebuild right now (which, why would one of the youngest teams in the league with one of the best prospect pools already decide that's the best course of action?). Not knocking Edvinsson, it's just a matter of team construction.

If Columbus is purely looking for a stylistic and leadership change, it makes far more sense to move Jenner (who's older, on less term, the captain, and plays a slower, more physical style), but the team isn't even willing to have that conversation.

I know how good Werenski is. I think you're underestimating Edvinsson. And again, Werenski has only been fit about 60% of the last five seasons. That's a big chunk missing and a big concern.

That's all fine and all, but I did not suggest Columbus would or should make the trade. I only commented that Edvinsson definitely has a ceiling to match or even top Werenski. Which he definitely does. He's not a "mystery box" by any stretch.

Werenski definitely has some injury concerns but has been decently healthy outside of last year where he missed most of the season. Missing last season definitely skews his numbers. Also when werenski was edvinssons age he already had 3 seasons of NHL play averaging over 40 points. Werenski was outproducing edvinsson in the NHL compared to the AHL. Edvinsson will probably be very good and even a future top pair guy but I don’t think he has top 15-20 defenseman in the league potential. It doesn’t make sense for either team to make this trade.

He was also limited to 35 games in 20-21. And who got to the NHL first is irrelevant when discussing ceiling. Look, man, it's not a putdown to say Edvinsson has a similar ceiling. He's a monster. He definitely has top 15-20 D in the league potential, if not top 10.

And again, I never remarked on the trade. I only noted Edvinsson's high ceiling.

NHL season was only 56 games during the Covid year. So yes he missed a third of the season but not two thirds.

Fair enough. I’m just not as high on edvinsson. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree

Your other points are good ones but I would argue Werenski is part of the PP problem. While he's easily a top5 dman in the league in the offensive zone he's a terrible QB on the power play.

My point on that was that his production suffers because the jackets powerplay is terrible. It’s hard to tell who is at fault for the PP but I wouldn’t put it all on werenski. I would say it’s partly because laine has been out almost the whole year and the coaching staff. Nobody has looked good on the PP